Losing Pravda
Subtitle: ethics and the press in post-truth Russia
By: Natalia Roudakova
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Number of pages: 265
ISBN-13: 9781107171121; 9781316629772
Copyright date: 2017
Subjects: Online journalism; Censorship; Government and the press; Journalism; Post-communism; Freedom of the press; Mass media; Reporters and reporting; Press and politics
Description: "What happens when journalism is made superfluous? Combining ethnography, media analysis, moral and political theory this book examines the unravelling of professional journalism in Russia over the past twenty-five years, and its effects on society. It argues that, contrary to widespread assumptions, late Soviet-era journalists shared a cultural contract with their audiences, which ensured that their work was guided by a truth-telling ethic. Post-communist economic and political upheaval led not so much to greater press freedom as to the de-professionalization of journalism, as journalists found themselves having to monetize their truth-seeking skills. This has culminated in a perception of journalists as political prostitutes, or members of the 'second oldest profession', as they are commonly termed in Russia. Roudakova argues that this cultural shift has fundamentally eroded the value of truth-seeking and telling in Russian society"--Provided by publisher.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Ethics and politics in Soviet journalism; title: Journalism and capitalism : the first encounter; title: From the fourth estate to the second oldest profession; title: The spiral of cynicism in the 2000s; title: Trying a life without irony in the early 2010s.